Beijing-Day 1 of trip

On Saturday, 02 November, we had a very early flight out of Singapore...which meant two hours earlier at the airport itself. It is about a 7-1/2 hour flight to Beijing and there is not a time difference.

Here is Parker, another plane, and the always-over-the-top Singapore Airline airplane food:

Here we are right before customs in China, at the Beijing Airport.  Fingers crossed:

Here is what the pollution looked like when we landed.  No that is NOT fog.  It was so bad you could hardly see the airport from the runway when landing.  I included another picture of the same view from the following morning.  And one a couple mornings later looking out the other side of the hotel.  When we had come in, there was cloud cover holding the normal, daily pollution output in.  It had even made international news:

I always enjoy seeing what kind of personal/local decor a hotel does.  The tea kettle and pots were at the front desk and the framed wall decor was in our bathroom:

Jeremy was not feeling very adventurous about dinner, so we ate at the hotel restaurant.  Everyone was a little fascinated with my crab, and we always enjoy a good dumpling:

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Beijing Northeast.  We did this mostly because it was the closest Marriott to the airport (at about 20 minutes down the highway without traffic) and we had a very early flight out.  We were there for three nights, but had to reserve two rooms a night, due to the number in our family.  We had enough points to cover all six rooms.  Note:  take a swimming cap with you to China if you plan on swimming in a pool.  No kidding.

When we landed at the Beijing airport, we were flocked with taxi drivers of larger vehicles.  Not knowing the cost of two taxi's, we did this.  On our return to the airport, the hotel called for two taxi's for us...it was cheaper.  Maybe the equivalent of $10 USD from that hotel to airport, per vehicle.

We also did what is called a 72-hour-no-fee visa.  (There is a 24-hour one that is different.  That one is for very long layovers.)  This one is accommodating if your itinerary (flight schedule) shows that you are landing and taking back off in under 72-hours.  You must also be visiting another country, not coming and going from your home country, and not traveling to another city in China.  (For example, we landed on a Saturday afternoon and were out on a Tuesday morning.  We arrived from Singapore and left to go to Bangkok.)  You cannot leave the province that Beijing is in.  This meant that we did not go and see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  We chose to do this because earlier this year the visa fee was the equivalent of $250 USD...each.  Towards the middle of this year it was changed to $140 USD...still each.  We had a large budget for airline ticket money anyways as this trip was exchanged for one of our trips home given to us in this office at work.  You can read more about all the China details here:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/visa/intro2.htm